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No. 6|4,654. Patented Nov. 22, I898. J. n. HODGES.

CAR FENDER.

(Application filed Feb. 8, 1898.) N 0 M o d e I.)

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOIIN D. HODGES, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF FIVE-SIXTHS TO JAMESBELLEW, FRANK I-I. REPETTO, AND PATRICK J. KING,

OF SAME PLACE.

CAR-FENDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 614,654, datedNovember 22, 1898 Application filed February 8, 1898. Serial No.669,554; (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN D. HODGES, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Car-Fenders, of whichthe following is a specification.

In Letters Patent of the United States granted to me on the 27th day ofAugust, 1895, and numbered 545,290, I have described and claimed afender for street-cars in which the buffer is normally held at a certainelevation above the rails, but upon meeting an obstruction is caused toautomatically trip the fender, which thereupon drops upon its hinges topresent an incline.

The present invention relates to improve ments in fenders of such type,and has for its object to simplify the construction of the trippingmechanism, reduce the number of parts, and render the action morereliable and accurate, to insure the operation of the trip irrespectiveof the point along the length of the buffer at which it meets anobstruction and obviate any possible jamming, and in general to make theconstruction of the fender more economical and efficient.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation, partly in section, of afender embracing my improvement attached to the front or advancingplatform of a car. Fig. 2 is a top plan view of said fender detached,and Fig. 3 is a detail of a modification.

A indicates a portion of a car-body, and A the platform thereof, whichis supposed for the time to be the front or advancing platform. Tobrackets B, depending from the forward corners of the platform, ispivoted the fender-frame C, which is formed in two sections, one ofwhich C extends rearwardly from the pivotal point underneath theplatform, while the other section C extends forwardly in advance of theplatform, their connection with the pivot-bolts 0 being in the nature ofa rule-joint, as at a, so thatif the rear section is depressed andlocked in a horizontal or other position it will hold the forwardsection up in line with it, while the forward section may beindependently turned up and folded over against the dashboard of thecar, as indicated by the curve in broken otal connections, and throughthis bar and the front bar D of the section play parallel bearing-rodsE, flattened at their forward ends and secured to the buffer E byvertical pivot-pins e, as shown, so that the buffer will be permitted aslight hinging'movement upon them in case it meets an obstruction nearone end or the other. The rear ends of these rods have rounded heads 6,that bear against the rounded heads f of short thrust-rods F, playingthrough the front transverse bar F of the rear section of the frame, thecontacting points of these heads being in line or about in line with thehinge between the two framesections. These thrust-rods in turn arepivoted to the ends of converging levers G, fulcrumed to ears or lugs g,projecting rearwardly from said last-mentioned front bar, and theselevers at their meeting points yoke into the annularly-grooved head h ofa latchbolt II, whichv plays through a transverse brace-bar H and therear bar II of said rear section and centrally thereof. A coiled springh, seated against a collar 71 upon this latchbolt and bearing againstthe brace-bar H,

normally thrusts the bolt to the rear, drawing upon the converginglevers and causing them to press the buffer outward to its fullestextent through the contacting rods.

To the bottom of the car-body, immediately behind the rear section ofthe fender-frame, is secured a hanger K, having at its foot a ledge 10,upon which the rear bar of said rear section normally rests to carry thewhole frame in a horizontal position. Immediately above this ledge is abolt-hole into which the latch-bolt takes to lock the fender into suchhorizontal position. Pivoted t0 the rear of this hanger, which willhereinafter be termed the latch-hanger, is a trip-lever L, having at itsfoot an inturned finger Z, which plays through the rear of the bolt-holeto drive the latch-bolt out thereof when it is not automaticallyretracted by the action of the buffer. The upper end of this lever isconnected by rod or link M with a bell-crank N beneath the front of theplatform, and a plunger I operated by the drivers foot, actuates thebell-crank and trip-lever, so as to release the latch-bolt when theoverbalancingweight of the front section of the fender-frame will swingit downward, lifting the rear section through the rule-joints andcausing the whole {:0 assume the position represented in dotted mes.

Any suitable means may be employed for restoring the fender to itsnormal position when the transient emergency has passed. Such means areshown and described in my former patent, and I have not deemed itnecessary to represent them herein.

Mounted on the forward bar of the fender and centrally thereof is asmall truck 0, which travels upon the side rails of the cableslot whenthe fender is down, in case the latter is applied to a cable-car, tocause it to ride easy and to sustain any weight that may be thrown uponit.

A woven-wire or net-workiender P is or may be hung by hooks 2) upon thecar-platform over the fender-frame or as a part of the same.

It will be understood that the apparatus is tripped by the driverwhenever he sees occasion therefor, but should his attention beattracted elsewhere the latch-bolt will be antomatically withdrawn themoment the butter encounters a resistance through the yielding of saidbuffer, carrying one or both of its bearing-rods backward, and throughthe thrust rod or rods operating the converging levers to retract saidlatch-bolt.

It is evident that the tripping mechanism herein described may beapplied to other than jointed fender-frames and that in case the bu feris so mounted as to yield in parallelism only but a single one of thetwo levers herein described may be employed, operated by a singlebearing-rod and thru st-rod. Hence I do not restrict myself to theprecise construction herein shown; but

hat I do claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination of the fender-fran1e,

on the latch-bolt, and acts through the lever to retract the boltwhenever forced back by an obstruction.

2. The combination of the rule-jointed fender-frame, pivots upon whichit swings and which constitute the hinge between its joints, the butter,its bearing-rods terminating in about a line with said hinge, athrust-rod in contact with the headed rear end of one of saidbearing-rods, and mounted in the rear section of the fenderframe, alever actuated by said thrust-rod, a latch-bolt with which said leverengages, a spring acting upon said latch-bolt in opposition to thelever, and a latch-hanger into which said bolt takes.

3. The combination of the rule-jointed fender-frame, pivots upon whichit swings, and which constitute the hinge between its joints, thebuffer, its rearwardlyextending bearingrods terminating about in linewith said hinge, the thrust-rods contacting with the rear ends of saidbearing-rods, the converging levers with which said rods connect, thecentrallyarranged latch-bolt with which the meeting ends of said leversengage the spring upon said latch-bolt, and the latch-hanger.

4-. The combination with the fender and its latch-bolt, and with thelatch-hanger, of the trip-lever having an inturned finger acting uponthe end of the latch-bolt to thrust it out of engagement, andconnections between said lever and the platform, whereby the lever isoperated by the driver.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JOHN D. IIODGES. lVitnesses:

J. BUEHLER, L. DAVIS.

